Here’s a summary of the case from The Washington Post, whose reporting indicates that County Judge Paul Czajka presided over at least part if not all of the trial(s):

[D]etails of shadowy CIA flights that have emerged in a small Upstate New York courthouse in a billing dispute between contractors. The court documents offer a rare glimpse of the costs and operations of the controversial rendition program.

For all the secrecy that once surrounded the CIA’s program, a significant part of its operation was entrusted to very small aviation companies whose previous experience involved flying sports teams across the country.

The August 2003 flights—and dozens of others to locations such as Bucharest, Romania; Baku, Azerbaijan; Cairo; Djibouti; Islamabad, Pakistan; and Tripoli, Libya—were organized by Sportsflight, a one-man aircraft brokerage business on Long Island. It secured a plane from Richmor Aviation, based near the Columbia County Airport in Hudson, N.Y.** Richmor eventually sued Sportsflight for breach of contract. In the process, the costs and itineraries of numerous CIA flights became part of the court record.

In other cases, the government has invoked the “state secrets” privilege to shut down litigation over the CIA program, but the case in Columbia County proceeded uninterrupted in an almost empty courtroom. There were only two witnesses at the bench trial: Richmor President Mahlon Richards and the owner of Sportsflight, Donald Moss.

According to several of the articles cited above, Richmor was due some $6 million from the flights, but sued Sportsflight for $1.6 million in unpaid bills. But Richmor’s president seems to have felt that the government’s use of the planes had harmed the company, its employees and its clients:

Richmor changed the tail number of the Gulfstream and complained in a letter to Sportsflight that it became the subject of “negative publicity, hate mail and the loss of a management customer as a consequence of the association of the N85VM with rendition flights.” The letter also stated that Richmor crews were not comfortable leaving the country and that the jets’ owners “are afraid to fly in their own aircraft.”

The U.K.-based Guardian adds:

[I]n May 2002, contractors hired by the US government sought the use of a private Gulfstream jet for government missions. Richmor Aviation offered the N85VM, on the understanding that it should be in the air at any time given 12 hours' notice.

Over the next three years, this plane flew at least 55 missions for the US government, often to Guantánamo Bay, as well as to numerous destinations worldwide.

These destinations include places that have now been associated with the CIA’s secret prison programme: Kabul, where the CIA ran the notorious "Salt Pit" prison; Bangkok, where Abu Zubaydah was first taken and used as a guinea pig for "enhanced interrogation techniques"; Rabat, where prisoners were kept incommunicado and tortured by Moroccan agents who passed information to the US and Britain; and Bucharest, one of the European secret jail sites.

The testimony taken right here in Hudson included details which many legal analysts and human rights groups have been trying to find out, but which until now were typically suppressed by U.S. government invocations of “State secrets.” Again from the Post:

The more than 1,500 pages from the trial and appeals court files appear to include some sensitive material, such as logs of air-to-ground phone calls made from the plane. These logs show multiple calls to CIA headquarters; to the cell and home phones of a senior CIA official involved in the rendition program; and to a government contractor, Falls Church-based DynCorp, that worked for the CIA.

The AP article and others note that the flights were provided with special State Department letters which allowed them to deviate from flight plans, and apparently aided in the flights’ purposes avoiding detection. Prisoners were cynically referred to as “invitees” of the United States.

USA Today’s piece reminds readers of some of the history behind the euphemistic term, “rendition”:

President George W. Bush acknowledged the existence of the prison network in 2006, and the CIA director in 2009, Leon Panetta, said that the prisons were no longer in use. Detainees have claimed in legal actions that they were flown, often hooded and shackled, to the prisons, where some were exposed to simulated drowning known as waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques.

A commenter on the Post’s website cites the following from U.S. and military law sources, pertaining to renditions, particularly the Convention Against Torture (CAT) signed by Reagan in 1988:

Article 3 provides that no State Party 'shall expel, return (‘refouler’) or extradite a person to another State where there are substantial grounds for believing that he would be in danger of being subjected to torture.' The U.S. ratification of CAT was contingent on its understanding that this requirement refers to situations where it would be 'more likely than not' that a person would be tortured if removed to a particular country, a standard commonly used by U.S. courts when determining whether to withhold an alien’s removal for fear of persecution.

Also:

The Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998 implemented U.S. obligations under CAT Article 3.31 Section 2242 of the act announced U.S. policy 'not to expel, extradite, or otherwise effect the involuntary return of any person to a country in which there are substantial grounds for believing the person would be in danger of being subjected to torture, regardless of whether the person is physically present in the United States.' The act further required all relevant federal agencies to adopt appropriate regulations to implement this policy.

Attorneys involved with the case expressed surprise in the published reports that no government official weighed in to keep the evidence secret.

* The Register-Star, whose offices are located just one block from the courthouse where this international story took place, has now hurriedly added the AP wire story to their website. It does not appear in its Thursday print edition. The story was dug up by a little-known British torture watchdog group, which obtained the court records and forwarded them to national publications.

** Published reports place Richmor Aviation in Hudson, but that is just its mailing address. The company is actually based in Ghent, operating out of the Columbia County airport off Route 9H.

August 30, 2011

The following article appears in the current issue of Our Town: The Columbia County Quarterly, and will appear here in four installments over the next two weeks. Link to the second installment: Part II

Arguably, the last real act of investigative journalism in Columbia County was committed 23 years ago.

In the summer of ’88, headlines in the Register-Star ran from the banal (Frozen Drinks are Popular at Area Bars) to the sordid (Grandinetti Suspect in Threat Against Chief’s Niece, Nephew).

But the steamiest topic that season was solid waste.

Trash talk had erupted all over the region, from Milan and Red Hook, to Stockport and Taghkanic. Garbage disposal was at the center of the controversy du jour, and nowhere was it hotter or more fetid than in Claverack.

For months, intrepid reporter Daniel Bellow doggedly covered the contested closing of the Snydertown Road dump. What began as a small, unlined town facility, had become the County’s landfill of last resort. Neighbors groused about the constant truck traffic and the risk of chemicals leaching into their wells, along with the peculiar absence of wildlife in nearby wetlands and streams. The dump was set to close in July by order of the State, but soon the County Board of Supervisors’ newly-elected Democratic leadership, headed by Chatham Supervisor Fran Blake, became embroiled in a bitter legal dispute with Claverack Super John Hess.

Hess and Claverack Town Attorney Allen Miller expected the State consent order to be upheld. Blake and BOS Attorney Carl Whitbeck insisted the Snydertown dump be kept open to prevent a “culture shock” for the County—code for the millions in fees it might cost to ship the trash elsewhere. Meanwhile, Tim Schools of the H.K.S. Hunt Club filed a private lawsuit against the County. And Dr. Jeff Monkash, heading up Concerned Citizens Against the Dump, called for scrutiny of New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation, likening the DEC staff to “cockroaches in a dark kitchen, who scatter when the light is turned on.”

Unlike many reporters today, Bellow understood his job demanded more than merely transcribing each round of “he said/she said” arguments. (Lately, one often gets only “he said.”) First he filed Freedom of Information Law requests for data officials wanted suppressed.

Then he got up from his desk at The Register-Star to do some actual legwork.

Tramping around the dump, Bellow found paint cans poking out of the earth, oily pools of water, and a frothy oozing “orange foam.” Following the sludge downhill, he observed polluted water breaking through berms, which the County’s engineer had said were adequate to prevent the spread of leachates.

“The Claverack dump is bursting with garbage,” Bellow reported, “and leachate visibly runs out the bottom like coffee through grounds. Two miles away, and 200 feet lower in elevation, is the Churchtown Reservoir, serving the City of Hudson, fed by streams that originate near the dump.”

“Uncontrolled leachate is clearly visible,” he elaborated in another article. “Red and blue, it gushes out the bottom of the mountain of garbage there, feeding the stream that runs along the bottom of the pile, running into the swamp at the edge of the dump.” Worried that his investigative work might fall victim to political interference or a publisher’s whim, Bellow filed one key report on a weekend afternoon, after much of the paper’s staff had gone home.

“All hell broke loose with that one, and Fran Blake had some choice words for me,” Bellow recalled recently.

Finally, after several court rulings and reversals, the dump was shut down and capped. Today, Monkash still wonders what might be seeping from the site into the water table, and the entrance is marked only by an improbable, peeling sign which reads: Town of Claverack Animal and Bird Sanctuary. County Public Works Commissioner Richard Brady soon moved on, as did Bellow, to the more professional climes of the then locally-owned Berkshire Eagle.

In his short time here, Bellow demonstrated the unique power of the press to hold public officials accountable. His work both clarified and amplified legitimate public concerns. There have been a few other bright spots since then: Jill Hazelton exposed scandals in the Hudson Police Department in the now-defunct Independent; she moved on after her car was firebombed by a buddy of Chief Jimmy Dolan. And Register reporter Sean Springer filed a series of valuably candid reports of County Supervisors’ shenanigans, leading soon thereafter to his reluctant resignation. Such journalistic acts have a tendency to hasten both the enactment of reforms and the departure of the journalist.

Our nation’s founders recognized that democracy depends on “an informed populace.” They understood the so-called Fourth Estate to be a crucial, independent check-and-balance on all three branches of our government. A quarter-century after the Snydertown dump debacle, such sustained, courageous, on-the-scene reporting has become an endangered species, fast approaching extinction.

But when the press fails to exercise its full rights under the Constitution, the fourlegged chair of our democratic system tends to go all wobbly.

Next Up: Part II of Missing Ink will look at the results of a survey of 400+ area residents’ views on our local media.

August 29, 2011

Everyone likes to scoff at “social media,” even those who use it most... as if its use consists of nothing but narcissists tweeting about their toddlers, or posting pics of their pedicures.

Which, usually, it does.

But during disasters, social media proves its worth. As Hurricane Irene progressed up the Hudson Valley, Facebook, Twitter, and the liveblogs which build upon them filled up with on-the-scene reports and pictures which, in a least a few cases, may have actually saved lives. The traditional media did its part, but mostly couldn’t keep up with the hoi polloi.

Above, you'll find links to a sampler just a small portion of the countless Irene photos posted online over the past 24 hours in the Hudson Valley. Wherever possible, the photographer has been credited, though a few were hard to pin down. (If for any reason you want your photo removed, just ask.)

August 28, 2011

At (p.m.) last night in Hudson, a patron at the bar was predicting authoritatively that today's storm would hit the Catskills much harder than Columbia County, due to the mountains’ elevation and terrain.

Seems he was right... While Hurricane Irene mostly has not lived up to its advance billing on the eastern side of the Hudson River, the same cannot be said for the western side. Facebook and Twitter are replete with pictures of semi-submerged cars, homes and businesses in places such as Arkville, Catskill, Cornwall, Tannersville and Windham.

Notably, flooding—not wind—is the problem. From the looks of things, many creeks in Greene, Ulster and Delaware counties have risen to, or above, the tops of their banks.

A liveblog over at the indispensable Watershed Post is filling up with alarming reports of roof rescues and (disputed) tales of dam ruptures, and is well worth a check-in: click here.

August 26, 2011

The Cyrus Curtiss House is on the upper right of this Walker Evans photo. The building across Warren at the top center was a boarding house and bar, demolished approximately 35 years later to make way for a supermarket promised by Bill Loewenstein (which never arrived). It’s now occupied by COARC... Found via the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Evans archive.

August 24, 2011

Rumor is that Linda Mussmann did not file Bottom Line petitions for Hudson Mayor by yesterday’s deadline. This means either that she is not running as widely believed; or else that she’s staking everything on the Democratic write-in primary (a/k/a "opportunity to ballot, or OTB) on September 13th. If the latter, and she loses the primary, realistically she could not continue the race to November.

Nick Haddad has already secured the Working Families line, and thus will have a line on the general election ballot either way. (In theory, anyone's name can be written on the primary or general ballot.)

August 23, 2011

August 22, 2011

For your Monday morning, here’s an applecartload of local bits, pieces, odds, ends, fact, rumor and surmise... (I probably could get way more hits by doling these out one-by-one over the next two weeks instead, but why tease?)

• In other food-and-hospitality news, the Fillis recently opened a spacious lounge/seating area in the back of their Claverack market to complement their growing pizza business (but I’ll be taking advantage of it mostly for morning coffee);

• Meanwhile, Café Le Perche in the 200 block of Hudson has obtained its liquor license, and will start to stay open until 8 pm weekdays, 10 pm or later on weekends (and is looking for some good evening help);

• Back in Claverack, the Won Dharma meditation/retreat center is holding an open house on September 4th from 3:30-5:30 pm for local residents (and curiosity-seekers);

• Over to Chatham... Former Charleston owner/chef Carole Clark will have an opening of her new “totems and vessels” at Solaqua on August 27th from 1-5 pm (in a raw industrial space which she says most will love, but some will find alarming);

• The Sunday Farmer’s Market in Philmont is a hidden gem which will remain open through mid-October (hidden, at least, if you don’t normally pass through Philmont on a Sunday morning);

• A fourth Bourne sequel, The Bourne Legacy, is said to be coming to shoot scenes in Columbia County, allegedly in “an old mansion close to Hudson” (but it may not star Matt Damon, so don’t rush off to look for him eating pastry on Warren Street);

• Work has resumed on the old Schroeder's site on Green Street (evidently to make way for yet another beer store);

• Tuesday is the deadline for independent nominating petitions for candidates running on their own lines (and it will be telling whether Linda Mussmann actually files Bottom Line petitions for Mayor, as was done for Geeta Cheddie and John Musall last week);

• The only two Hallenbeck for Mayor signs spotted thus far are on (A) the candidate's own house and (B) an old car parked in front of a defunct store on Fairview Avenue... in Greenport;

• Peter Jung’s Gifford’s Grave project to restore the family gravesite of one of the Hudson River School’s leading lights, is now complete (but will wait to hold a celebratory ceremony in 2012);

• More photos of the Hudson Merchant House can be found at Laura Murphy’s SmugMug site, (which also features some fun pics of starlings and pigeons bathing in a large puddle on the roof of her 600 block building);

• Some ATMs in Hudson reportedly ran out of cash during the weekend of the NADA art fair at the Basilica Hudson (but as best as anyone can tell, most of it went to food, not art).